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Singer Whitney Houston Dies; President Obama Unveils his 2013 Budget Plan

Aired February 13, 2012 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANDHOR: All right. I'm Christine Romans, in for Suzanne today.

Let's get you up to speed for this Monday, February 13th.

There was a time when she could hold a note forever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITNEY HOUSTON, SINGER (singing): And I will always love you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Wow. But it was her life that would flame out too soon.

Two days after Whitney Houston's body was found in a Hollywood hotel room, there are still more questions than answers in the pop superstar's death. Coroners have finished Houston's autopsy, but it could be weeks before they release toxicology reports and a cause of death. Now a witness at the hotel says Houston was seen within the hour before she was found dead.

Al right. The music industry in mourning and paying respects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HUDSON, SINGER (singing): I will always love you

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: You'll be hearing that song a lot over the next few days.

Houston's fellow artists and fans made their sorrow known at last night's Grammy Awards honoring the singer and remember her triumphs.

This morning, our Kyra Phillips caught up with Houston's close friend, the singer Kim Burrell, who says she exchanged voicemails with Whitney Houston in the days before her death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: She said she needed to see you. What do you think she was saying?

KIM BURRELL, WHITNEY HOUSTON'S FRIEND: That was just her. Whenever she knew I was in the air (ph), that we needed to see each other and express our love -- express our love for each other.

And it's just very hard today to see all of this. It's very surreal, but I'm trying very hard to be strong for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. Meantime, President Obama rolls out his 2013 budget plan today, and it's already under fire from Republicans. The plan calls for raising taxes on the wealthy and for increased spending on infrastructure and education. The education spending includes $8 billion for job training at community colleges.

We'll hear from the president about that live. His remarks are expected any minute now.

Syrian forces are again on the attack in the embattled city of Homs. And once again, the Arab League is trying to find a way to stop the bloodshed there. The league is calling for a joint peacekeeping mission with the U.N.

For the first time, Russia now says it is ready to promote a security agreement between Gulf countries and the U.N. Security Council. Many Syrians are afraid to speak out even after they flee the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I went downtown and saw someone dragging an injured man. I took them on my motorcycle.

A man left behind was shot dead. I was beaten up by the security forces. They broke bones here and here, my kneecap and my skull. The injured man was also beaten up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: And another day of chaos in Greece. Protests raged outside parliament as lawmakers there approved yet another round of budget cuts needed for a $172 billion bailout by Europe's leaders. Dozens have been arrested and injured in these clashes.

But a very different reaction in the U.S. Stocks are up following Greece's decision.

A rebound from Friday's losses when Wall Street feared austerity measures would not pass. Now the Dow Jones Industrial Average up about 47 points this morning. Greece was a problem last week. At least today investors are encouraged by the progress they're seeing there.

All right. Two legal wins today for former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who is awaiting trial on child sex abuse charges. A judge has just ruled that Sandusky can see his grandchildren, with the exception of three of those grandchildren whoa re involved in a custody fight. The judge also denied a prosecution request to select a jury outside the county where Sandusky is being prosecuted. She sold more than 170 million records worldwide, but Whitney Houston will be remembered as much for her personal demons as her success and that voice.

Don Lemon is live for us in Los Angeles with the latest details on the death of the pop sensation.

And Don, there are so many questions. You just spoke to the L.A. coroner. We're getting a clearer picture of the last hour even of her life.

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, and it was good that Ed Winter, the assistant chief, came out of the L.A. County Coroners Office to explain things to reporters, because, Christine, he said there's been a lot of misinformation out there. He's been paying attention to the news reports. He came out just moments ago.

Originally, he said he wasn't going to have an update for a couple of days, maybe on Wednesday. But here's what he said -- "Within an hour" -- and it was within an hour within the room -- "someone saw her within the room."

And then, apparently, they were gone away for an hour, she was left in the room by herself, came back after an hour, and then found Whitney Houston, and then they brought in reinforcements, security guards, what have you, emergency workers from the hotel room. And that's when they found Whitney Houston's body, Christine, in the bathtub.

And those reports about, you know, did she drown, was there enough water in her lungs, all that? He said, at this point, they don't know until they get the full results back.

And I said to him -- I asked him -- and you'll hear in the question, Christine -- I said, you do autopsies all the time. Usually you have some idea, some idea just looking at the body, just by doing the initial autopsy. He said, yes and no.

Here's my question, here's his answer, and then we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The toxicology report is just a confirmation. But you have some idea usually just from the initial look at the scene and looking at her body as to what the cause of death might be. I know you don't want to speculate, but what do you think?

ED WINTER, LOS ANGELES CORONERS OFFICE: No, that's not true. You can look at a body and not know what the cause of death is.

You might have a suspicion, but the person could have suffered a heart attack or an embolism or something. And no matter what medications they're taking, until we run a tox and see the level, and what's in the system, we're not going to speculate.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: And so where they may have -- he says they might have a suspicion because she was found in a bathtub, right? You would assume that she drowned, and maybe she drowned because she was unconscious and went under the water. That may be the suspicion, but he says there's no sign of trauma, nothing looks out of the ordinary.

Prescription bottles, he does say, were found. And that's according to the police as well.

But here's what he said, Christine, which I thought was interesting. He said, "Listen, we did find prescription medication in her room, but I have more prescription medication in my possession at my home than was found in the room." And I thought that was very interesting for him to say that.

And there were the pictures of her coming out of this nightclub in Los Angeles, just not long before she died. And you saw that she had some scratches on her leg and what looked like to be red stains. It could be blood, it could be wine. Who knows what it could be? But he said there were no obvious signs of trauma, nothing out of the ordinary.

Her body, if they want to take her body, her family, they can right now. The body hasn't been placed on hold, but the information has been placed on hold.

ROMANS: And Don, did he say who found her? Who was the person who saw her in the room? Was it a hotel staffer? Was it a family member? Or they didn't go that far?

LEMON: A family member. They don't believe it was a hotel staff member, because she was seen in the room, and only certain people had access to the room -- family members or people who were within the entourage, security guards, or what have you.

He believes, and he says he's not sure, it may have been a sister-in- law. But she was -- they had seen her in the room about an hour before, and then they went away to do other things. Whitney stayed in the room. And then, when that person came back -- it was a woman, they believe -- when she came back, she discovered Whitney and then called for reinforcement, and then that's what happened.

And then, also, by the time the coroner said they got there, the body had been removed from the tub. So reports about whether there was enough water in the tub for her to drown, he doesn't know at this point. Whether there was enough water in her lungs, they don't know at this point. They are waiting on the toxicology. But she was removed from the tub by the time they go there, but as we know, they were never able to revive her.

ROMANS: All right.

Don Lemon in L.A.

Thanks, Don. We'll talk to you again very, very soon.

Now we want to hear from you on the story that everyone is talking about today. Whitney Houston was both a pop icon and a woman haunted by her personal demons.

Our "Talk Back" question this morning: How will you remember Whitney Houston?

You can post your thoughts on Suzanne Malveaux's Facebook page, Facebook.com/SuzanneCNN.

All right. Here's a rundown of some of the stories we're covering this morning.

First, I'll talk live to multi-platinum singer and songwriter Brian McKnight about the last time he saw Whitney Houston.

And the president sends Congress a budget. He wants the wealthy to pay more in taxes. Hear what he has to say about it.

Then, Syria's neighbors again try to stop the killing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Welcome back.

We want to get straight to the president. He's in Annandale, Virginia, talking about his new budget for 2013. Let's listen.

(APPLAUSE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is great to be back here at NOVA. I've been here so many times, I'm about three credit short of graduation.

(BEGIN LIVE EVENT COVERAGE)